Sunday, June 19, 2011

I went to Mars with DEVO

I've known Dig since we were both twelve, and we've been through a lot in all that time. We keep in touch and we're still pretty much the same guys to one another we were way back then. Just before we turned 16, he brought a tape over to my house with a song by a band I'd never heard before. It was Freedom of Choice by DEVO. I really thought it was something. Not long after that we moved several cities away. Dig and I stayed in touch by mailing goofy little tapes we'd make... I still have most of them. As I settled in at the new place, something, I'm not sure what now, reminded me of DEVO and I started buying their albums. I sort of gave back to Dig by sharing the music and it became a touchstone for us.

He works downtown now right at Dundas Square and a couple of days ago he learned that the music festival playing there was headlining DEVO. I never got to see them when I was a kid, but we made a point of it yesterday. A couple of his friends from St. Catherines came in and after a trip to a pub on Isabella and an Ethiopian restaurant, we nearly missed the start of their set. We arrived just as they started. We were way back, and could barely see them, but there they were... DEVO. Man, was that something.

They did a set of about an hour, during which time they went through a couple of costume changes. When they threw their DEVO hats out to the crowd, oh man, did I ever want one. They came out in the yellow jumpsuits and it was like I was 16 again. Seeing that was a real kick. Everything they played was stuff I knew, but then, I know most of their stuff. They "left" the stage showing the video of the DEVO Corporate Anthem, but then they came back and Gerry asked us if we wanted to hear one more DEVO song... we had a "choice". And they played it... my first, my DEVO non plus ultra: Freedom of Choice. And Dig and I sang along with it. I'm not joking when I say I had goosebumps.

But not a DEVO hat or shirt to be bought! Strange! I wanted to give these guys my money and I couldn't give it to them.

So... Mars. Not surprisingly, I dreamed about DEVO this morning. Dig and I were winners of some ultra-fan contest and along with about a dozen other people, we got to hang with DEVO. At some point, we all went to some cottage on Mars with them where were could see Phobos and Deimos skating through the Martian sky. We had to put on special breathing apparatus to go outside. It turned out it was all just a joke the band was playing on us. They played a few pranks on us but it was in good fun and otherwise they were really cool to us in the dream.